Increases in renewable energy production have caused a major change in the electricity market, resulting in frequent imbalances in the electrical grid. The project contributes to carbon reduction through its use of biomass as a source of electricity production, increasing the share of green energy in the network while helping to address the imbalances caused by the rise of solar- and wind-generated power. The stakeholders included central procurement and energy managers in the mills; pool service providers; communication providers; and programming service providers. Challenges at the start of the project can be attributed to being early movers in the market. The registration procedures were unclear, and changed several times during the process. We also faced resistance from current market participants. Additional hurdles included ensuring production schedules were not affected, and technical difficulties programming the control panels in the energy department.

Project Purpose

The intended result of the project was to develop a service with the pool service provider that utilised flexibility in electricity production to earn income through participation in the balancing market. Moreover, participating in the balancing market helps enable smoother integration of renewables into the market, improves security of supply and increases the capacity of the power system. There is the added benefit of using biomass-produced electricity in the mills, which increases the use of renewables for power generation and contributes further to carbon reduction. Two Mondi mills have been successfully registered and are now fully eligible to participate: Mondi Frantschach (since 2015) and Mondi Neusiedler (since 2016).

Project Evaluation

The project's success is measured by the income produced through activation from the grid operator. The project is successful in producing non-core income with a short ROI period of one to two months. Mondi is currently analysing the possibility of expanding this project into other countries where we have mill operations, including Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Karl Rittmannsberger

Energy ManagerMondi Neusiedler

"With the experience of an energy manager, excellent staff at Mondi and a great project team, it was possible to successfully implement this project in only five months. Mondi was already active on the balancing energy market. As a consumer and producer of electricity, we can offer this flexibility by managing our own internal electricity production on-site. The steam produced by the production process is fed to a turbine generating electricity. When grid demand is high, the excess electricity is sold to the market; if demand is low, we bypass the turbine and feed the steam via pressure reduction to the process, which stops or reduces electricity supply to the grid."